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More than 100 celebrities, including Ariana Grande and Pedro Pascal, have signed letters against cutting funds for LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention.
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- Spectrum WT, an LGBTQ student organization, sued West Texas A&M University after cancelling a drug show planned for suicide prevention fundraising in March 2023.
- In a March 2023 email explaining the decision in March 2023, Wendler compared drug performance to blackface, saying that drugs “discriminate against femininity.”
The Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the University of West Texas drug shows ban and cited the First Amendment.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its August 18 ruling said the district court was falsely rejecting a request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent West Texas A&M University near Amarillo, Texas, from enforcing the ban.
Spectrum WT, the school’s LGBTQ student group, was holding a March 2023 drug show to raise funds for the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization that serves LGBTQ youth. The president of Walter Wendler University cancelled the show before the performance, saying that “harmless drug shows” was “impossible,” and Wendler also posted it on his website.
Wendler wrote that while fundraising is for “noble causes,” the drug “shows women of extreme stereotypes like cartoons for the entertainment of others and discriminates against femininity.”
He also compares drug performance to blackface performance and says he doesn’t support such events on campus as well.
The plaintiff, represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire), sued Wendler and other school officials, demanding a provisional injunction to prevent the school from halting such performances while the lawsuit continues. The district court rejected the request in September 2023.
However, the Court of Appeal opposed the 2-1 decision, granting the interim injunction, saying that the plaintiff “showed a substantial threat of irreparable harm to First Amendment rights without an injunction against President Wendler.”
Judge James C. Ho opposed, “Like the Blackface performance, drug shows violate the university’s basic mission to ensure an educational environment that is welcome to everyone.”
“The majority do not argue that West Texas A&M is needed to enable a group of students to perform in blackface,” writes Ho. “Just because drugs find favors in a particular circle, the outcome doesn’t make a difference here.”
The fire praised the decision, which said at the school “restored the First Amendment.”
“This is a victory not only for Spectrum WT, but for public university students who are at risk of being silent by campus censorship,” said fire superintendent JT Morris.
A West Texas A&M spokesman said the university had not commented on the pending lawsuit.
Brieanna Frank is the first amendment reporter for USA Today. Contact her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.
Reports on the First Amendment issue for USA Today are funded through collaborations between the Freedom Forum and Journalism’s fundraising partners. Funders do not provide editor input.
